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Clues to get an all-round fit candidate
You intend to fill a couple of important posts in your organisation. You advertise in the newspaper soliciting resumes from candidates having particular qualifications and experience. You receive umpteen applications, all looking equally good and meeting every criterion of the job requirement. A tough job on your hands indeed! Choosing the best of the available calls for special skills. You need to look beyond the resume and search for those intangible qualities in probabl
e candidates that differentiate between mere competence and stunning excellence.
The past history being almost identical, exploring the intangibles assumes importance in assessing the value a candidate is likely to bring to the organisation in meeting future challenges. Intangibles include creative problem solving, conflict resolution, agility, and positive attitude and negotiation skills amongst others. Some of these qualities are innate while others are acquired. However, one thing is certain they are not the same in every candidate.
It is no doubt challenging to uncover these special traits in an interview process. Nevertheless, prior planning can definitely help you succeed in your mission. As a first step determine what soft skills the incumbent should possess to excel in his role. If the job setting is highly volatile, unpredictable and fiercely competitive, you must look for a person who can best handle pressure. If frequent change is the rule in your line of business, the person who dons the role should be quick at the uptake and adapt instantly. If the role entails boosting up a product line on the downturn it calls for creative skills in abundance.
In case dealing with clients or unions is a regular feature; the candidate should invariably possess excellent communication skills and persuasive skills.
Besides, certain other traits such as willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions, positive attitude, initiative, self-drive, passion and perseverance make an employee truly valuable to the organisation.
The second and the most important step would be to identify the presence of vital personal traits. This can be done in the interview process. The seemingly daunting task can be simplified by taking a closer look at the resumes. Scan the work history to pick experiences which when probed during the interview could yield deeper insights into certain personal traits. For example, questioning a candidate on how he resolved particular challenges faced in the past could help you spot the intangibles you are looking for such as creative abilities or conflict management skills. Some interviewers like to judge a candidate on the basis of how he responds to a hypothetical situation. Often the candidates are too smart and take cues from the interviewer’s line of questioning. They come up with ideal responses that project them in the best light. A better option would be to ask the candidates to elaborate their personal experiences of success and failure to date and lessons learnt from them. You will be able to gauge how he perceives failure, his ability to cope with stress, accept his faults and resilience. Similarly, you can get an inkling of what success means to him, his willingness to take risks and his enthusiasm to traverse the less trodden path.
Deliberate disagreement is a technique adopted to bring certain important personality traits of the candidate to the fore. How a candidate copes with disagreement can reveal many things about his personality. Submissiveness, aggressiveness, arrogance and impatience are some of the personal qualities that cannot be overlooked and should be given a serious thought before making the hiring decision.
Education and experience fit are only a part and it is the intangible qualities of the candidate that make up for the best hire. Placing the right candidate in the right job is no doubt half the battle won. So the next time you hire, look for an all-round fit!
N. PURNIMA SRIKRISHNA
faqs@cnkonline.com
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